PNG Court Rejects Bid To Restore Water And Power To Detention Centre

The men have been drinking from a muddy well.

Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court has rejected a bid by 600 starving refugees and asylum seekers living in Australia's mothballed detention centre on Manus Island to have water and electricity restored to the facility.

The men -- refugees and asylum seekers -- have been barricaded inside the centre for a week and say they are safer inside the shut-down centre than in new, but unsecured, accomodation closer to the Manus capital of Lorengau.

Lawyers for the refugees are expected to appeal the decision as early as Wednesday.

Public and international condemnation has mounted since the centre was closed last week, months after it was declared unconstitutional by PNG's Supreme Court.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is adamant the men won't come to Australia and said activists were encouraging the men not to move. New Zealand offered to take 150 of the men but Turnbull rejected the offer on the grounds it would encourage people smugglers.

He blamed "activists" for encouraging the men not to move from the centre.

"I think... is that there are some activists in Australia, including the Greens senator Nick McKim, who are basically encouraging these people not to move," he told the ABC on Tuesday.

PM Turnbull says the NZ option for the men in limbo on #Manus would be marketed by people smugglers as a "backdoor to Australia"@RNBreakfast

PNG Immigration Minister Petrus Thomas has urged the men to leave, and has said it isn't just a case of reconnecting the water or electricity.

"The Government takes its obligations towards the treatment and care of all persons transferred to PNG very seriously," he told the Port Moresby based Post Courier.

"It is not incumbent on PNG to deliver services and this remains the responsibility of the service providers but at the new locations where the residents have to move to."

Amnesty international has warned that over the past 10 days refugees reported three medical emergencies.

"In one case, a refugee who has epilepsy, had a fit and was unconscious for several hours," Amnesty said.

"Refugees called to guards to provide medical assistance but there was no response. In another incident, a refugee self-harmed and, while physically stable, he remained in a fragile mental state, supported only by his friends."

Human Rights Watch's Elaine Pearson said the Australian government was acting irresponsibly.

"Moving hundreds of men to a town where refugees have been beaten, stabbed and robbed is incredibly irresponsible," she said in a statement.